Poynt files for bankruptcy

Oh no! Calgary-based Poynt has filed for bankruptcy. This is not good news, especially because Poynt was one of few Canadian companies to gain success globally. Their Poynt app was been pre-loaded on millions of smartphones and gives users quick access to local info, phone numbers, movie times and gas prices. At last count Poynt had 15.4 million users with a goal to have 40 million users by the end of 2012 – clearly that’s not going to happen.

According to their press release “The Company is not currently in a position to meet the obligations owing to its secured and unsecured creditors and as such, has taken this action under the BIA as the most expeditious and economical manner of addressing the interests of its creditors and allowing it to carry on its operations.”

No debt, but they’re losing 500 Million a quarter with 2 Billion in the bank… you can do the math…

Porilaisten

And suddenly everyone’s an economist

W Young

15.4 million users means nothing if you can’t monetize your app.

beuh_dave

tell that to instagram, ouch!

Xena

Is there an app for that? 😉

Anirask

Really.. You had to show it running on Windows Phone and not on iPhone, Android or Blackberry?

Ahmed Eltawil

I think it would have been more dramatic if the app was shown on a BlackBerry 🙂

Ahmed Eltawil

Oh man, I just don’t want to see RIM’s name on a news piece like this anytime soon. That’s unfortunate for us Canadians.

ns.dev

TBH I’ve never heard of this until today. Guess I’m too late to the party 🙁

Al

Well there goes all my money I invested in poynt. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Thai

Tried it awhile back and uninstalled the same day. It’s not all that good, drains your battery and littered with ads.

Poi

It’s such a useful app!

Mike

What a shame, that is a great app; I use it often on my Android phone.

JC

I installed Poynt once on my phone but 1) found that it was a resource hog, 2) it kept recommending me to check out events across the Atlantic in England. The app was deleted from my phone shortly after.

kman

I was a big fan of this app… much cleaner than Yelp and easier to use than google maps search. Contrary to the other posts, I never noticed resource issues with Poynt but Yelp seems to have the ability too drain my battery in a couple hours if left running in the background.

… It was also one of the few useful apps that was ported over to Playbook. sigh….

Jay

I didn’t often use this app, but I installed/used it every now and then. But for the most part, google maps kind of does everything I need from this kind of app anyways.

Poynt definitely has been around some time, unfortunate to see this happen to them.

Viigo rss reader still remains my favorite old school (well not that old school) bb app :p

Paul

Had stock a couple years ago. Glad I sold it at the time. It seemed like it was jsut a matter of time. Don’t forget however that declaring bankruptcy doesn’t mean the company will close. It will just get rid of its current debt. The company will continue to operate. Hopefully they can come out of it okay. Unfortuantely for stock holders.

Poynter

They may not fully shut down, but how long could they realistically continue to operate?

They have been kept alive by securing millions of dollars in loans and their stocks are worthless. It’s very doubtful that they will be able to raise capital on the market, especially enough to cover several million dollars operating costs. They posted a $10M loss last year.

Also, if Intertainment acquires Poynt’s patent portfolio as indicated this morning, they will have to secure a licensing agreement with a former creditor who will be looking to profit above their loss.

This is not to mention that they have lost and terminated many of their staff and no longer have the experts and knowledgeable people to continue to develop and run their systems.

bill

you are so correct – don’t know how they will ever get technical staff to work for them after how they treated staff – Calgary has a tight business network.

Kastortroy

This app was great for the playbook, especially when paired with the 9900. I used it overseas alot. I really wish this company well, and since it’s Canadian its even sadder. There are getting less and less true Canadian companies these days, and being taken over by Americans companies.

szalanc

2 for 2 for former President Yves Millette. First TECO last year and now Poynt. How does that guy keep getting hired??

Poynter

This bankruptcy has ZERO to do with Millette. He was brought in as President and after two weeks of building and communicating his strategies, was placed on indefinite leave by the CEO. I am willing to bet that he was against the China venture leaving Osis no choice but to remove him.

Considering they sank money into car racing sponsorships, maybe having a free app was a bad idea.

jason4

Lame news for a Lame company.

….your fired.

stylinred

wow really ive even got poynt on my nokia N8 they’re everywhere

hoo dat

I love this app!

A couple of weekends ago I bought tickets to a movie, booked a table for dinner and a taxi home all in about 3 minutes on Poynt in a city I was unfamiliar with. As I travel a lot for business it’s the go to app for me to find out what’s going on in the place I’m at and has never steered me wrong.

Hope they’re able to come out of bankruptcy stronger than ever!

Mike

WTF !?!? This App is awesome. It saved me so many times before. I remember the time when car broke down and I needed to locate the nearest mechanic. Found my mechanic one block away from where I was standing. Saved me from embarrassment in front of my date. I use this App a lot. Didn’t know this App was Canadian until today. More reason to use it now.

bill

someone needs to investigate the CEO and the CFOdid they report changes in staff to the proper authorities as required. There is smoke which means fire